Amber and Mike Part III
The day after Christmas, 1993, I hopped in my parents’ minivan with my brother and a few other friends to make the trek to Atlanta. Amber was riding with a few other friends, so I had a nice nine or so hour drive wondering how it would be when we saw each other. When we finally got the hotel, it wasn’t long before we met up with a bunch of other UF crusaders in the lobby. Amber had a big smile on her face when she saw me, so I figured it couldn’t be all bad news.
The conference was, well, about like the other four Christmas Conferences I attended. Someone preached about evangelism, someone else preached about having a quiet time, yet another preached about sex and dating, and then Josh McDowell ran in and did something crazy. That year I think he came in wearing a Russian naval uniform someone had given him. Anyway, I do remember having a good time with Amber and our other friends. The final night, of course, was the big blowout where Bill Bright was beamed in via satellite and everyone brought in the new year singing worship songs. Sometime before midnight, Amber and I escaped the din and wandered upstairs to the hallway between our rooms. There, we engaged in......
(Oh come on. I’ve spent the last two weeks telling you how our lives in college basically revolved around Crusade, school, and Gator football. Do you really think anything juicy was going to happen next? I told you this might be boring and you might want to go read someone else’s blog. But hey, I can’t apologize for the fact that Amber and I were serious about Jesus in college. Did we do everything perfect, of course not. Do I like the fact that 95% of my extracurricular activity in college was doing stuff like handing out tracts on campus and organizing barn dances? Not particularly, but I can’t complain about the outcomes. I still love Jesus 12 years later. Amber is still my bride and my love 12 years later. If I was making this stuff up, I would’ve thrown in some juice a long time ago.)
...the inevitable DTR. That’s right, the “Defining the Relationship” talk. Remember, Amber and I had become close friends, but as far as I knew she was still planning on taking the first boat to missionary-ville after college. So when we approached the subject of dating that night, it was done very cautiously. There was a mutual decision to go forward, but in order to keep things chill we decided to just “hang out” for a while. At the time, very few if any other of our Crusade friends were dating. There would be questions from “accountability partners” (don’t get me started) and maybe even from a staff person or two. So, for the time being, we would be “hanging out”. We left the hallway, hand in hand bringing in the remarkable year 1994.
Back in Gainesville, the expected questions did start to come our way. Honestly though, I don’t remember anyone giving us trouble expect one guy named Rodney who would always look at us with a half-sneer. He may have had a crush on Amber, but that’s another story. Anyway, that spring we took to spending as much time as we could together. You know, long talks, long walks, making out at night outside the University Auditorium. Stuff like that. Over spring break, Amber had her wisdom teeth out so I came down to Jupiter to visit her and her family. Odd to think that seven years later we’d be moving to Jupiter for good.
It was a wonderful spring semester for me. I think I actually did pretty good in school. The pressure and stress of dealing with girls was replaced with just being with someone I cared for, simply. Amber introduced me to the guitar. I introduced her to Gator Basketball. She convinced me to apply for a missions trip the next summer. I convinced her...well, I did get her to like basketball. Summer approached and I was scheduled to work for a friend back in Merritt Island. Amber would go home as well and get ready for her next missionary venture to Russia. We saw each other a few times that summer and I came down to Jupiter to see her off on her trip.
The night before she left, I told her I loved her. We had talked about marriage before, but that night we discussed how the big decision was approaching rapidly. What would happen over the summer? We would not be speaking for at least 6 weeks until she reached Russia and even then it was questionable if she would have a way to communicate. Pre-internet and pre-satellite phone, it was write a letter or hope for a fax. Would we feel the same when we returned to Gainesville? I felt confident, but neither of us had what we felt at the time was a “word from God.” What if God said, “no”? Those were the questions I was left with as she walked on the plane the next day.
Stay tuned...
The conference was, well, about like the other four Christmas Conferences I attended. Someone preached about evangelism, someone else preached about having a quiet time, yet another preached about sex and dating, and then Josh McDowell ran in and did something crazy. That year I think he came in wearing a Russian naval uniform someone had given him. Anyway, I do remember having a good time with Amber and our other friends. The final night, of course, was the big blowout where Bill Bright was beamed in via satellite and everyone brought in the new year singing worship songs. Sometime before midnight, Amber and I escaped the din and wandered upstairs to the hallway between our rooms. There, we engaged in......
(Oh come on. I’ve spent the last two weeks telling you how our lives in college basically revolved around Crusade, school, and Gator football. Do you really think anything juicy was going to happen next? I told you this might be boring and you might want to go read someone else’s blog. But hey, I can’t apologize for the fact that Amber and I were serious about Jesus in college. Did we do everything perfect, of course not. Do I like the fact that 95% of my extracurricular activity in college was doing stuff like handing out tracts on campus and organizing barn dances? Not particularly, but I can’t complain about the outcomes. I still love Jesus 12 years later. Amber is still my bride and my love 12 years later. If I was making this stuff up, I would’ve thrown in some juice a long time ago.)
...the inevitable DTR. That’s right, the “Defining the Relationship” talk. Remember, Amber and I had become close friends, but as far as I knew she was still planning on taking the first boat to missionary-ville after college. So when we approached the subject of dating that night, it was done very cautiously. There was a mutual decision to go forward, but in order to keep things chill we decided to just “hang out” for a while. At the time, very few if any other of our Crusade friends were dating. There would be questions from “accountability partners” (don’t get me started) and maybe even from a staff person or two. So, for the time being, we would be “hanging out”. We left the hallway, hand in hand bringing in the remarkable year 1994.
Back in Gainesville, the expected questions did start to come our way. Honestly though, I don’t remember anyone giving us trouble expect one guy named Rodney who would always look at us with a half-sneer. He may have had a crush on Amber, but that’s another story. Anyway, that spring we took to spending as much time as we could together. You know, long talks, long walks, making out at night outside the University Auditorium. Stuff like that. Over spring break, Amber had her wisdom teeth out so I came down to Jupiter to visit her and her family. Odd to think that seven years later we’d be moving to Jupiter for good.
It was a wonderful spring semester for me. I think I actually did pretty good in school. The pressure and stress of dealing with girls was replaced with just being with someone I cared for, simply. Amber introduced me to the guitar. I introduced her to Gator Basketball. She convinced me to apply for a missions trip the next summer. I convinced her...well, I did get her to like basketball. Summer approached and I was scheduled to work for a friend back in Merritt Island. Amber would go home as well and get ready for her next missionary venture to Russia. We saw each other a few times that summer and I came down to Jupiter to see her off on her trip.
The night before she left, I told her I loved her. We had talked about marriage before, but that night we discussed how the big decision was approaching rapidly. What would happen over the summer? We would not be speaking for at least 6 weeks until she reached Russia and even then it was questionable if she would have a way to communicate. Pre-internet and pre-satellite phone, it was write a letter or hope for a fax. Would we feel the same when we returned to Gainesville? I felt confident, but neither of us had what we felt at the time was a “word from God.” What if God said, “no”? Those were the questions I was left with as she walked on the plane the next day.
Stay tuned...
posted by Mike Bishop at 8:31 PM
2 Comments:
Whaaaaaat!!!!!!! Rodney did not have a crush on me. (Now Eric Sayler..poor Eric I know you've found the blog. Really, I just didn't want to date any boys at the time..you where very persistant and some girl will really dig it one day:-))
Oh my word---you could of left the making out part out of the post. Now our sqeaky clean crusader identity is foiled. Everyone else waited to kiss until their wedding day and we, well we did go to the Vineyard so we've always been a little outside the party lines.
I'll say one thing, you write our life like a sound track is playing in the backround. I am hearing the Seventy Sevens "No Where Else". But I guess you could say that song is special to me. So what I want to know is how are you going to top this ann. gift next year?
Not everyone waited to kiss on their wedding day!
Didn't the 4 of us go whitewater rafting at the start of that summer? That is when I realized I was in love with Mark.
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